It might seem obvious, since I haven't posted here since March, that I am no longer using this livejournal. I am trying to streamline all my blogs/promotion/products/processes. In doing that, I'm closing down this journal and moving from livejournal to my own websites.

Where you can now find me on the interwebs:

Steff Metal - http://steffmetal.com. This is my main blog now. Steff Metal is an alternative culture blogazine about heavy metal lifestyle, fashion and kvlture. At least three times per week I post metal news, book, CD and movie reviews, the kreig advice column, interviews with interesting people, articles about the heavy metal lifestyle - haircare tips for metalheads, packing a suitcase for frostbitten lands, etc, crazy top ten lists, daily outfit posts, and details about me, my life, and my upcoming books and publication. It's a bit like Gala Darling, but with a kreiger soundtrack.

I'm launching a line of products (what will they be? It's a total surprise!) in the new year, available from Steff Metal alongside all my ebooks. You can also hire me as a copywriter through this site. I mainly work with Etsy shops, and offer a series of packages at low cost to suit these micro-businesses. Email at steff@steffmetal.com

Email at steff@steffmetal.com - any questions and comments about the site, heavy metal, or life in general. I'm always looking for more interesting people to interview, stuff to review, businesses to advertise (competitive rates available) and problems to solve. Horns up! \m/

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The always fascinating agent Nathen Bransford blogged today about Free Ebooks. He asks if free content is inevitable and how it will work for authors, if at all? One commented, RW, made an excellent point, which I wanted to bring up:

( Free Media HELPED the music industryCollapse )I really can't comment much on this except to say I agree entirely. I've never seen as much buzz around live music and support for indie and up-and-coming bands as I have since myspace and the free music brainwave. I'm buying less CDs, this much is true, but we go to more live shows. We're also more likely to buy an album at a show. And a t-shirt.

As we say, no one knows exactly how free media will work for authors, but we need to investigate more alternative revenue streams if we want to keep going in this business.

Whilst camping over the weekend, I discussed this with a girl working on her first book. She said her desire to write stemmed from a belief that she had to leave something behind 'for the world to remember her'. For her, a book was the only way to ensure her

This is a common feeling among writers, one I confess to sharing on some occassions. I wondered why this was - why, when we read a book do we feel compelled to be the story-tellers, rather than the listeners? Why is writing and publishing the only keys to immortality?

I think, in part, it's the way the human mind remembers things, like our favourite childhood books. Writing something down commits it to memory - it gives a stray thought a concrete form. Perhaps, as people who desire our thoughts to be written down, the idea of them floating away unacknowledged and unexplored seems abhorrent.

I think it's also our love of remembering the places which exist in our imagination. Everyone remembers Homer for the stories he weaved, but no one remembers what colour his eyes were or whether he liked feta cheese or not. The ability to capture the imagination - which I think is intwined closely with what might constitute a soul - is what grants true immortality in the eyes of the world.

Something like that. Thoughts? Feelings? Comments? You know what to do.

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I'm working on a series of short ebook reports for my website. I reckon I'm on a winning formula with my freelance efforts, and everywhere I go I see writers losing homes, facing bankrupcy, struggling to get by, and I think if I can do something to help, even in some small way, then I should.

The 10 report series will go up in installments, and then all ten reports will be sold as an ebook for a reduced price, with lots of free goodies.

They'll be priced way below what I should be pricing so that broke writers can afford them (but can't be free though, otherwise I'll go broke too :)) and I'll be adding lots more free material to the website too. Stay tuned, as hopefully the first installment will go up this weekend.

I'm plodding away on Thorn, halfway through the text now, but CDH's imput means I have to go back over that first half AGAIN. He keeps coming in while I'm writing waving his finger at me, shouting "I've got it! This is what you have to do..." He's brilliant - the best friend a writer could have.

Over on Wedding Skulls I've post my second Favour February feature, on DIY punk rock candy buffets. I'm having so much fun with this series, I'd love to include more of these month-long features on the blog.

Bit of a rambly post today, I'm afraid. Proper, well-thought out content will be back next week, I promise :)

Blind Characters is part of an ebook series founded by the fantasy writer Holly Lisle. Several authors - each an expert in their topic - contribute to the series. You can find Blind Characters, along with other ebooks on horses, courtroom law, firearms and ballet dancers, up at Holly Lisle's website.

I've been reading these ebooks for awhile now and I find them extremely helpful. I'm honoured to contribute to such a worthwhile series.

In other writing news, I've been working on edits to SSS, aka Thorn. All was going dandy till last night when CDH stormed into my office and demanded I open a new word document.

"I've solved the problem." He declared, and proceeded to dictate to me a prologue.

CDH is not a writer, and his prologue was bloody terrible. But he IS a reader, and what his prologue did was satisfy certian story questions that I hadn't been able to incorporate into the text in a satisfying manner. He also unwittingly provided me with inspiration for two more scenes, and a neat way of tying a minor plot device into an overarching theme from the story.

I loves him. He is SO brilliant.

So I am musing. And recovering from my camping expedition. 3 days of sleeping on hard earth, swimming in a beautiful freshwater lake, kayaking, walking, card-playing, metal singalongs, dealing to strange and giant insects, watching my friend smear deap-heat cream over his nether region, a late-night skinny dip and a mission to sabotage a Christian hearhten-burining bonfire (all in good fun, I assure you).

First off, my ebook Halloween Wedding Planner has arrived in the big wide world. To help promote the book I've begun Wedding Skulls blog over on blogger - advice and inspiration for couples planning halloween, gothic, steampunk and misc. alternative weddings. I've had plenty of positive feedback so far, so I highly recommend stopping over and commenting on some of the posts. As for the Halloween Wedding Planner, you can buy it for $8.95 from my website shop or the Wedding Skulls blog

My second ebook, 33 Mistakes Writers Make About Blind Characters, is on sale through HollyShop and my own website sometime this week. I'll update you as soon as it's available.

Secret Steampunk Project is in another editing stage before being shipped back off the Harper Collins around March/April.

Married life is AWESOME and I thoroughly recommend it to everyone. The wedding was super fun. Pop over to the Wedding Skulls blog to see photos.

I'm still trying to decide exactly what direction to take this blog. Because I want to sell more writing-related info products, I'm not sure whether to keep this blog as a semi-personal thing, have another blog for writing stuff, and my Wedding Skulls blog for my subcultural stuff. Alternatively I could just keep this as my 'personal and writing blog' and then have Wedding Skulls. I'm trying to DECREASE my workload here, but I'm worried that I'm trying to reach two different audiences with the same blog - those interested in my writing-info products and info about writing, and those into following mine and CDH's adventures, heavy metal, books in general, and sausage rolls. I'll ponder a little further.

In the meantime, you might like to have a look at my new website www.steffgreen.com, There will be a bit of content going up over the next two months (but probably not too much) and in mid/late november it will start getting a lot busier as my first ebooks go live. I'm very proud of what I have so far, as I've managed to teach myself basic html code in an afternoon. Go me! Anyway, have a looksie if you're interested.

I really love this magazine and what they do. Every member of the staff has a disability, so there's been lots of delays this year because two staff members were hospitalised. But finally, finally they're back on their feet. Enjoy. Feel free to comment here or to Breath and Shadow if you like/dislike any of the work.